


Suggestive

by Steadfxst



Category: Pundit & Broadcast Journalist RPF (US), Real News RPF
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, No Sex, Sex Pollen, Tenderness, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 21:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20513507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steadfxst/pseuds/Steadfxst
Summary: Things fall apart, but Sciutto helps put them back together.





	Suggestive

They're crouched beneath their desk after the blast goes off. It was instinct to grab Poppy and pull her down with him. They're shielded from whatever the hell that was, but there was still a fine mist in the air. It seemed to shimmer.

"Are you hurt?" Sciutto asks.

He cups her face in his hands, gently tilting her head this way and that, looking for signs of blood or bruises.

"No, I--I think I'm okay. I just. Feel funny," she says. Sciutto looks into her eyes. Her pupils are wide; her look is glassy. "You look different."

"Different?" he asks. That couldn't be good. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

He lets go of her face and holds up two.

"Two."

"What looks different? Is it double vision? Blurry?"

He remembers what living through that IUD was like. How mostly everyone was physically unscathed, but forever scarred in different ways. His friend David now had migraines that made his vision black out, the bomb was that close and that powerful.

"No," Poppy says. "It's. It's just you. I..." She trails off, face twisting into a grimace. Her arm wraps protectively around her middle. "I feel different too."

It doesn't take long for the firefighters and paramedics to come in and investigate the scene as well as check everyone over. There were nothing more than superficial injuries, some ringing in the ears after whatever that thing was had gone off. They had confirmation that the "bomb" had no shrapnel in it.

"This powder everywhere worries me," Sciutto overhears a man in the hazmat suit say to another person in a hazmat suit.

His clothes are coated in the stuff. Everyone who was there were covered in it in varying degrees. He and Poppy had been hit the hardest; obviously they were the main targets. Before he can for more information, he feels arms wrap around his middle.

"There you are. I don't want you to leave me alone."

He turns around in Poppy's grasp.

"It's okay. You're alright," he says. "They just want to check and see what this dust is before we can leave."

Poppy rubs her face against his chest, pulls him towards her tightly.

"You protected me," she says.

"Of course. I don't want anything to happen to you."

Poppy looks up at him. She's grinning, looking far too relaxed considering the circumstances.

"Poppy," he begins.

Her grin falters, and her arms go to her middle again. She lets out a tiny moan. It sounded as though she had been fighting to prevent it from escaping her mouth.

"Jim, I think I know what this powder is."

By the time the newsroom gets confirmation, Poppy is already deep in the throes of it.

"Why isn't it affecting you, Sciutto? Why just me?"

He tries to ignore the fact that she's removed her blazer and unbuttoned her shirt. Her lacy white bra is clearly visible. He's not sure when she did it, but her hair is up now, too, in a messy ponytail. 

"I don't know."

She keeps pacing in front of him, like a caged animal at the zoo. Every once in a while she looks over at him, as if she were expecting him to be showing signs of the aphrodisiac as well. She fans herself with a pile of papers from the desk.

"Sciutto..."

She saunters over to him as she lets his name spill from her mouth. He's worried about what she's going to ask him.

"Yes, Poppy?"

She crowds into his personal space, pressing against him breasts first. He tries not to stare, but he's only human. He pictures putting his hands on them, cupping and squeezing them. He looks up to see her smirking at him; he'd been caught.

"Sciutto, they told us what will make it stop."

He nods, intentionally looking only at her face.

"It needs time to run its course in your system. And then we can both go home."

"There are other ways, too."

She slips her hands into his pants pockets.

"Poppy," Jim says sharply. He firmly removes her hands from him. "You don't really want that...And neither do I."

Suddenly, her face screws up, and her cheeks redden. She steps away from him in an effort to regain her composure. She takes a few breaths, but even so, the tears well up and over, spilling down her face.

"Poppy, I'm not mad at you, and I don't want you to be embarrassed. I just want you to try to think. Think about what you're asking me. You don't want that."

"Jim," she says. She sniffs, wipes her eyes with the edge of her sleeve. "That's just it: I do. Not like _this_, but. You're too much of a gentleman."

"Thank you?" he says.

It earns him a laugh and a small smile. It's progress; he'll take it.

* * *

They talk for a while after that. About anything that will keep her mind off things. But it's hard being stuck up there in the offices, waiting for the fans to clear everything out. Waiting for her body to expel it from her system.

"This is the opposite of what my body wants right now, but can you turn around for a second?"

"Okay..."

He's skeptical, but he does it. 

After a moment or two passes she says, "Okay, you're good now."

Sciutto watches her smooth down her skirt before tossing her panties into a trashcan that they keep on-set. He feels his face heat. He's obviously not going to say anything to her about that, but he's only human, and he knows that will fuel his fantasies for quite a while.

"I wish I was at home, in bed," she says.

She sounds more tired than anything else. Her eyes look more focused, too.

"You deserve a good, long rest. I'm sure you've earned some vacation time."

"Oh, Sciutto," Poppy says, laughing and shaking her head.

"What?" he asks, smiling back.

"You're a good friend to put up with all this. And for, well. You know."

She leaves the sentence there and lets her shoulder bump into him.

"Well," Sciutto says. He clears his throat. "Well, if you ever want to grab coffee or something outside of work, I, um. I wouldn't be opposed."

"Yeah?" she asks.

"Yeah," he says.

Poppy smiles and rests her head against him, and Sciutto wraps his arm around her as they wait for the all clear, content and comfortable in each other's presence.


End file.
